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Apollo 11 Flotation Bag

Apollo 11 Water Recovery Display at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. The display includes an Apollo Boilerplate Command Module fitted with the original flotation collar and flotation bags used during the recovery of the Apollo 11 Command Module. The Apollo 11 Command Module is on display at the National Mall Building in Washington, DC.

Display Status:

This object is on display in the Human Spaceflight exhibition at the
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.

Collection Item Summary:

When an Apollo command module landed in the ocean, it could settle into one of two stable positions: nose up or nose down. Landing nose down left its recovery antennas underwater and increased the possibility that the spacecraft might fill with sea water. To turn the command module upright, three inflatable bags were installed in the Command Module's forward (nose) compartment. Astronauts could right the spacecraft by activating air compressors in the aft (blunt) end of the spacecraft. The compressors were connected to the bags with tubing.

This is one of three flotation bags used on Apollo 11 at the end of its historic lunar landing mission on July 24, 1969. The astronauts deployed it after the command module settled nose down, enabling the spacecraft to right itself about six and half minutes after splashdown.

This object was transferred from NASA to the Smithsonian in 1973.

Collection Item Long Description:

Data Source

National Air and Space Museum

Restrictions & Rights

Do not reproduce without permission from the Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum